Former senator, Randy Brogdon, joined the Pat Campbell Radio Show on Thursday morning, to express his strong support for the legal challenges to the controversial new tax hikes which the legislature is attempting to impose. Listen to the full interview with Richardson, and the resulting comments from Brogdon, here.

  Brogdon believes the state will 'play dumb' and claim they never intended for the controversial legislation to result in half a billion dollars of new taxes imposed on Oklahomans.

  OK Energy Today just published a succinct expose' on the selectivity shown by the legislature, in applying industry tax credits. Read their full coverage, here..

With 3 major sets of plaintiffs already having filed court challenges to the Revenue measures passed by the legislature, The Oklahoma Supreme Court has already set Tuesday, August 8th, as the day when all of these combined cases will be heard.
  The first filed challenge came from producers, distributors, and retailers of tobacco products. They will seek to have the new tobacco tax nullified by constitutional restrictions on the manner of passing such manners.
  The second challenge comes from the auto dealers who will argue essentially the same points of unconstitutional process, to nullify the new double taxation of all auto sales.
  The third challenge comes from The former federal prosecutor and current candidate for governor, Gary Richardson. He will challenge at least 3 of the new revenue measures. He says he held back on the tobacco challenge, and may revisit that item at a later date. His cases will include the new assessment on hybrid and electric motor vehicles, the increased income tax liability, as well as the auto sales double tax.

  When Mike Hunter stepped up to finish Scott Pruitt's term as Attorney General, He inherited a Fallin Administration, Legislative tax binges, and the unauthorized actions of an un-elected OMES director. 
  Then Hunter faces the consequences of a legislator & governor who blatantly violated the plain language of the constitution by raising massive new taxes during a time and by a margin with the state constitution strictly forbids.
  The office of Attorney General is responsible to defend actions which the AG was never formally consulted about.  Such is the case we face this summer.
  Just this week, a 3rd major lawsuit was filed by the Oklahoma Automobile Dealers.  The legislative leaders decided that they can pass hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenues... as long as they pretend that it's something other than a revenue-raising measure.
  During floor debate, the leadership insisted that they were simply cleaning up language, or restructuring process. But no one in Oklahoma is as stupid as the leadership deliberately feigns.
  Hunter has his hands full with a runaway Office of Management & Enterprise Services. Director Preston Doerflinger is a staffer of the governor's. He and the governor have deliberately sought to undermine the office of the State Auditor & Inspector. They are encroaching on the constitutional offices and seeking to evict those offices from the capitol building while eating up more floor space for their own bloated staffing.

  The high court, today, scolded a Missouri govt. policy which treated faith groups as non-citizens when it came to a govt. program to assist in providing playgrounds to the public.
​  By a 7-2 vote, the justices sided with Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, which had sought a grant to put a soft surface on its preschool playground. The church was denied any money even though its application was ranked fifth out of 44 submissions.
  Chief Justice John Roberts said for the court that the state violated the First Amendment by denying a public benefit to an otherwise eligible recipient solely on account of its religious status. He called it "odious to our Constitution" to exclude the church from the grant program, even though the consequences are only "a few extra scraped knees." Read the full decision. Sotomayor & Ginsberg dissented.
  The case arose from an application the church submitted in 2012 to take part in Missouri's scrap tire grant program, which reimburses the cost of installing a rubberized playground surface made from recycled tires. The money comes from a fee paid by anyone who buys a new tire. The church's application to resurface the playground for its preschool and daycare ranked fifth out of 44 applicants. (read the AP's full report)

  The last Reagan appointee is rumored to be leaving the US Supreme Court. Anthony Kennedy was the replacement nominee, selected when Robert Bork was, well,... Borked!
 Here's a bit of the speculation coming from Washington's political media:
​  Washington Examiner posted - 

  Like president Trump, many political figures are now using social media opportunities to reach out to voters and even their eventual political rivals. This sort of dynamic is becoming an exciting change because of the innovations of the information age. This morning, two candidates for Oklahoma's next governor, held an impromptu dialogue, along with the readers of SoonerPolitics.
  Of all the new dynamics of the information age, there emerges some new opportunities to dialogue in ways we've not been accustomed. Today, we are seeing some of this on the SoonerPolitics Reading Room (a Facebook group for discussing the topics of public policy & politics).
 We commissioned a readers' poll about the growing number of plaintiffs challenging the controversial new taxes which the legislature passed in the final few days of the 2017 session. With every new post there follows some rich discussion. 
  Libertarian candidate for governor, Rex Lawhorn, initiated a bit of a dialogue and it wrapped up with a direct discourse that Republican candidate, Gary Richardson, engaged in with Rex.
  We decided to post the substance, because it demonstrates the point that ordinary Oklahomans have great opportunities to connect directly with state leaders because of the great innovations of new media.

  The former federal prosecutor is taking on the Legislative leadership for abusing the constitutional rights of all Oklahoma citizens.
  He takes them to task regarding House Bill 1449, which creates the “Motor Fuel Tax Fee” which charges a fee to owners of electric and compressed natural gas vehicles in order to make up for the fact that they don’t pay the motor fuel tax.  
  He says House Bill 2348 effectively raises taxes on the millions of Oklahomans who take the standard deduction when filing their tax returns by uncoupling the state deduction rate from the federal rate and House Bill 2433 adds a new 1.25% sales tax on motor vehicle sales on top on the existing excise tax already charged on car sales.  
  Richardson is filing as an Oklahoma taxpayer. He is funding this effort on his own behalf. He believes This is how leadership is demonstrated.
  Later on Thursday, I caught up with The richardson team to get their official press release.
  The scheduling manager said that Richardson has already received calls and support from conservative groups and several speaking engagements are being arranged. 
  Ronda Vuillemont-Smith of the Tulsa 912 Project said that Richardson already accepted her invitation to update the  group at their Friday morning breakfast meeting, tomorrow, in Southeast Tulsa.

The co-chairs of the House Platform Caucus are endeavoring to build an organization whereby it's selected members can promote the Republican values of the OKGOP. 
  Chuck Strohm (R-Jenks) & Sean Roberts (R-Hominy) came to a local cafe', to speak with the Tulsa Area Republican Assembly, on Tuesday night. They spoke of the events and conditions which fostered the organization's development.
​  Strohm explained that matters came to a head in early April, and Strohm says he took the initiative to speak with House Speaker, Charles McCall, to explain and coordinate the mission of the group.

   Roberts said that initially, there were about 15-20 colleagues working together, in the house; depending on the issue. He said that it wasn't reasonable to expect 100% concurrence on every issue. But he also communicated specifically with the Speaker and his team, so that they could stand for Platform principles without malicious motivation.

  Oklahomans are participating in several special elections to fill legislative vacancies. And a number of federal offices are also being filled by special elections. The results look to be tight, but winnable for Republicans.
  Democrats were sensing a chance to discredit President Trump, when they poured over $10 million into a Georgia congressional race. Tom Price had served the Northern metro Atlanta district before being picked to run the federal HHS cabinet post. Dems bullied and threatened anyone who ran against their anointed 'pajama boy' candidate. But Ossoff was deeply discredited in the final days and Karen Handel cruised to a 6-point win.

  Closer to home, Zack Taylor won a bell-weather district race. The Seminole County GOP chairman went to the House by having a few dozen more votes than his Democrat opponent. If that is any indicator, the republicans will have to work hard and smart in order to continue their dominance of the legislature. ​

  But the failures of the 2017 legislature have created a backlash against GOP leadership from within the party ranks.  The emergence of a Platform Caucus is an indictment for needed reforms in the OKGOP.

​  The Tulsa Area Republican Assembly June meeting will feature the co-chairmen of the Legislative Platform Caucus. Rep. Chuck Strohm & Rep. Sean Roberts will be the featured speakers at the Tuesday night meeting, in South Tulsa. This last Spring, several legislators made a pledge to uphold the Republican Platform in their roles as state legislators.

  While the group is not yet formally registered as a minority caucus, there has been an outpouring of grass roots support for these "twenty-sumth'n" known allies of fiscal conservatism.

  Earlier this month, Rep. Jason Murphey called for a Supreme Court challenge to the many revenue bills which violated well-established regulations of the legislature.

  Rep. Tom Gann also strongly rebuked the practice of calling taxes something else, in a vain attempt to skirt clear constitutional restrictions.
Here's the club posting of the meeting:

  Navy Reserve pilot, Joe Newhouse was elected last year to replace a termed-out Mike Mazzei. Mazzei had perhaps the worst attendance record in the history of Oklahoma's legislative branch. Physical ailments were the ongoing nature of Mazzei's years long preoccupation.

  But Newhouse, while being perhaps the most able-bodied in the upper chamber, is continuing to serve the US military, even while he is a member of the Oklahoma Senate.

  Just this week, Newhouse released a statement, saying that his reserve unit is due to be activated for anti-terror service in northern Africa. Newhouse concedes that his state government service would likely grant him a deferral from the deployment, but he characterizes this as a moral duty, and he does not wish to exempt himself from an obligation to serve in the capacity that the federal government has paid and trained him for.

​  But that's little consolation to a district which has lost effective representation for most of the last ten years.

  'Tom'* has had a difficult life. His schizophrenic illness has not responded to known medical treatments. Many of them have further harmed his health. For 25 years he has suffered with the ebb & flow of his psychosis intensity.
  Doctors have tried massive doses, experimental techniques, and have given up. Often Tom has departed from institutions in worse shape than he entered them.

Last Fall, Tom's family sought to get a Canadian County court to order him into yet another  psychiatric treatment intervention. The family contacted law enforcement repeatedly, and were routinely told that; 
"Until he poses a threat to others, they cannot act."
  Tom evidently did finally cross that 'line' and someone filed a criminal complaint, saying Tom made a threatening action. Tom was then arrested and put in the Canadian County Jail. The county has no mental health court.

  Oklahoma has only 16 counties (out of 77) with a separate preemptive process for the seriously mentally ill. If your loved one gets seriously ill, get them to one of these 16 counties.
  Those 16 counties have a system set up for the mentally ill whereby a special court process can address a serious mental illness.

Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado told The Frontier on Monday that because Barre wasn’t an immediate threat to the public, deputies didn’t want to escalate the situation to the point use of force would be necessary. Instead, they waited for a future opportunity to complete the mental health pickup in a safer manner. The situation changed when Barre entered the street armed with knives, he said.
“In another view, we hope Joshua’s death wasn’t in vain,” Regalado said.
Regalado said he believes the underlying issue is budget cuts to Oklahoma’s mental health treatment programs and Friday’s shooting might bring the problem front and center.
“We’re starting to see the byproduct of that, if anything comes out of this, community and law enforcement can partner to bring to light that issue,” he said.